– Neither the psychic nor the physical functions can be understood, unless the fact that both can work in different states of consciousness has been grasped.
“There are four possible states of consciousness for man (he stressed the word “man”).
But the ordinary man, that is man number 1, 2 or 3, lives only in the two lowest states of consciousness.
The two higher states of consciousness are inaccessible to him and although he may have glimpses of these states, he is unable to understand them and judges them from the point of view of these two lower states of consciousness that are habitual to him.
“The first, sleep, is the passive state in which men spend a third and often even a half of their lives.
And the second, the state in which men spend the other half of their lives is in which they walk the streets, write books, talk about sublime matters, participate in politics, kill each other.
It is a state that they consider to be active and that they call “lucid consciousness” or “waking state”.
The expressions “lucid consciousness” or “waking state” seem to have been chosen jokingly, especially if one realizes what a “lucid consciousness” must be and what is actually the state in which man lives and act.
“The third state of consciousness is self-remembering, or self-awareness, or awareness of your own being.
It is usually admitted that we have this state of consciousness or that we can have it at will.
Our science and our philosophy have overlooked the fact that we do not possess this state of consciousness and that our desire alone is incapable of creating it in ourselves, no matter how clear our decision.
“The fourth state of consciousness is objective consciousness. In this state a man can see things as they are.
Sometimes in your lower states of consciousness you may have glimpses of this higher consciousness.
The religions of all peoples contain testimonies of the possibility of such a state of consciousness that they qualify as “enlightenment” or by various other names, and define it as indescribable.
But the only fair path to objective consciousness is through the development of self-awareness.
If an ordinary man is artificially brought into a state of objective consciousness and then returned to his habitual state, he will not remember anything and will simply think that for a period of time he had lost consciousness.
But in the self-conscious state a man can have flashes of objective consciousness and remember them.
“The fourth state of consciousness represents a totally different state from the previous one; it is the result of inner growth and long and difficult work on oneself.
“However, the third state of consciousness constitutes the natural right of man as it is, and if man does not possess it, it is only because his living conditions are abnormal.
It can be said, without exaggerating anything, that at the present time, the third state of consciousness does not appear in man except through very brief and very rare flashes.
And that this state cannot become more or less permanent except through special training.
“For the vast majority of people, even the educated and intellectual, the main obstacle on the way to self-awareness is that they believe they already have it.
In other words, they are fully convinced that they already have self-awareness.
And to possess everything that accompanies this state: individuality in the sense of a permanent and immutable “I”, will, ability to do, and so on.
Therefore, it is evident that a man will not be interested in acquiring, through long and difficult work, something that in his opinion he already possesses.
Conversely, if you tell him, he’ll think you’re crazy or trying to exploit his gullibility for personal gain.
“The two higher states of consciousness – «self-consciousness» and «objective consciousness» – are linked to the functioning of the higher centers of man.
In addition to those centers of which we have spoken, there are two other centers in man, the “higher emotional center” and the “higher intellectual center.”
These centers are in us; they are fully developed and work all the time, but their work never reaches our ordinary consciousness. The reason must be sought in the special properties of our so-called “lucid consciousness.”
“To understand the difference between states of consciousness, we have to go back to the first one, which is sleep.
This is a completely subjective state of consciousness. A man is immersed in his dreams, it doesn’t matter if he remembers them or not.
Even if some real impressions reach the sleeper, such as sounds, voices, heat, cold, sensations of his own body, they only arouse in him fantastic subjective images.
Then the man wakes up.
At first glance this is a completely different state of consciousness. You can move around, talk to other people, do projects, see hazards, avoid them, and so on.
It seems logical to think that he is in a better situation than when he was asleep.
But if we go a little deeper into things, if we take a look into his inner world, into his thoughts, into the causes of his actions, we will understand that he is almost in the same state as when he was asleep.
And it is even worse, because in the dream he is passive, that is, he cannot do anything.
On the contrary, in the waking state, he can do something all the time, and the results of his actions will affect him and his surroundings. And yet he doesn’t remember himself.
It is a machine, everything happens to it.
You cannot stop any of your thoughts, you cannot control your imagination, your emotions, your attention.
He lives in a subjective world of “I want”, “I don’t want”, “I like it”, “I don’t like it”, “I feel like it”, “I don’t feel like it”.
That is, a world made of what he thinks he likes or doesn’t like, of what he thinks he wants or doesn’t want.
He doesn’t see the real world. The real world is hidden from him by the wall of her imagination. She lives in the dream.
Sleep. And what he calls his “lucid consciousness” is nothing but a dream –
And a much more dangerous dream than his dream at night, in his bed. “Let us take some event in the life of mankind.
For example, war. There is a war right now.
What does it mean? It means that several million sleepers are trying to destroy other millions of sleepers.
Of course, they would refuse to do so if they ever woke up. Everything that is currently happening is due to this dream.
Source: Fragments of an unknown Teaching. P.D. Ouspensky
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